History and Rolls of Law Enforcement in America

Baro, A. L., & Burlingame, D. (1999). Law enforcement and higher education: is there an impasse?. Journal of Criminal Justice Education, 10(1), 57-73.

The field of police work is constantly being forced to develop and improve its protocols, procedures, and practices in an effort to keep pace with the ever-changing society in which it operates and criminal behavior it seeks to eradicate. While the history of policing has been marked by substantial changes throughout time, the work of modern-day police officers and officials demonstrate some of the most substantial adaptations to its surrounding environment that the field has ever seen. In order to understand where the future of policing is heading, it is important to first understand these current trends that are affecting the current landscape of the profession. By

In the early days most police officers were once soldiers. There were also groups of citizens that would join forces to protect themselves.

Law enforcement is a career that is both violent and rewarding in many capacities. Justice needs to be served in law enforcement and they have a responsibility to uphold the law and serve the people in the community. Law enforcement is crucial in the world today as a global realm as life continues to be more complex and law enforcement struggles to combat many aspects of crime. In order to combat these problems and have a positive future in the criminal justice system, everyone must work together on a bigger scale.

The criminal justice system is one of the most important components in the public service system. Since it is a system that citizens encounter daily it would be most beneficial for those who are employed to behave as ethical leaders. Leadership skills and ethical behavior are both parts of the duties of any officer serving the law. Often employees are placed in quick decision situations that can have fatal outcomes if not handled properly. By ensuring that all officers of the law have a set of functioning ethical leadership skills can not only develop a well-rounded individual, but also builds the relationship between the community they serve to protect. The police and other officers of the law have great discretion and power over an individual which makes having responsible, ethically behaving persons on the front lines even more important. With the right training and education, ethical officers can set the bar and improve the quality of life of the community they serve as well as other officers.

People have always had some kind of enforcement of law to protect them. The police officer’s main focus is to protect the citizens they are around and serve justice to criminals that get in the way of protecting citizens. This is an interesting career choice because the people with this career have a daily duty to keep the streets safe and clean from any dangers. The topics that will be covered are the salary of detectives their main duty, the typical day they experience, years on the job that are rewarded in different ways like a new job opportunity or an increase in pay, educational requirements, and skills required.

New officers need to know that no profession demands a higher ethical standard than law enforcement. Whether or not there are other careers that require a similar dedication to doing the right thing, it is undeniable that there is a tremendous degree of expectations placed upon police officers. Every officer knows, or at least should know by now, that they live in a fishbowl. Friends, relatives, neighbors and strangers watch every move law enforcement officers make, both on and off duty. The fact is that the public scrutinizes police officers more than most other professions, either because they are cynical or hope to catch them screwing up or because they are hopeful

The early colonists started policing when they first arrived in America and had established colonies. April of 1631, in Boston, the townspeople volunteered to watch the city at night (Early Days of…). These watchmen would patrol the night trying to catch criminals. If criminals were spotted, the watchmen would scream and set off alarms to raise awareness to the townspeople. In smaller places, the governor would appoint sheriffs to watch over the colony at night. The sheriffs were appointed to watch the town instead of volunteers because of the small number of people in the

With cities rapidly growing in the early 1700s the duties of the night watch began rapidly growing. With a growing number of sailors entering towns there was an increase in the number of taverns built and entertainment for people passing through, which contributed to misconduct (nleomf.org). Due to this growing number of responsibilities, the number of people volunteering for night watch was rapidly declining (nleomf.org). As a response to the decline of night watch volunteers, some cities instituted a system where they would compensate those who volunteered for night watch, in attempt to raise interest in other volunteers

Over history there have been quite a few events that impacted law enforcement back then and still to this day.

In this paper I would be identifying, compare, and contrast the policing function at the local, state, and federal organizational levels. I would be Analyzing how the organizational, management, administration, and operational functions at these three organizational levels are similar or different and why. Also I would be identifying the leadership characteristics and responsibilities pertaining to each organizational level.

Police “officers work and live in a constantly changing environment in which they are exposed to a myriad of ethical conflicts. When either unprepared or unaware, police officers are more likely to “go with the flow” than they would be if they were adequately prepared to face potentially ethical risks.” (Gilmartin & Harris, 1998) Most ethical violations are committed because the officer is exposed to a situation in which he was inadequately prepared. The lack of time to think about the situation before committing an ethical violation has detrimental life changing consequences. Police work can be very exciting and very rewarding but if not properly prepared and trained an officer can easily find himself involved in an ethical violation. Understanding the issues and being mentally prepared will help police officers become more responsible and make better

The United States has almost 18,000 law enforcement agencies.Each agency is limited by law. Law enforcement is also limited by the procedural law derived from U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Like much of the criminal justice system, this limited law enforcement model came from England. The United States has more police departments than any other nation in the world. Settlers to the new American colonies brought with them the constable-watch system, which became common in cities. In many rural areas, a sheriff and posse system was commonly used. America developed with two separate law enforcement systems. In 1844, New York City created the first paid, unified police force in the U.S. It was not until after the Civil War those police forces routinely

Law enforcement officers deal with criminal offenders, some who are more dangerous than others . Officers may be sometimes assigned to field work that has a high crime ratio or even assigned to institutional settings, where there may be a high risk of violence. Results of working as a law enforcement agent can be very stressful and risky at times. Ethics in criminal justice provides us with the knowledge to get resources to help us make moral choices during challenging situations involving ethical issues in everyday operations.Moral rules and ethics are a very import concept in the criminal justice field.

The history of policing can be traced back to the beginning of time. When looking at the subject of police work there is a large culture and history that follows along with it. There are many topics that can be analyzed when identifying, and describing the elements and the significances that are associated with policing. A large element of the police job that plays a large factor in the work and attributes to the policing culture is the amount of stress that an office will face while performing on the job. Another part of the job that plays a large part in the culture